What is it?
Boss GE-7 Equalizer, made in taiwan in may 2002. Otherwise in fair condition, but missing a few slider knobs (which seem to very hard to source as spares).
Schematic is online, courtesy of Hobby-Hour.com. There are three DIP-8 and two SIP-9 opamps plus a transistor based output buffer that make up the circuit. There’s also standard Boss-style electronic JFET switching. All seven frequency ranges from 200 Hz to 6.4KHz are active filters that are able to boost or cut the desired frequency while keeping other frequencies well in tact. Plus the gain slider sets allover level and offers a reasonable amount of boost for all individual bands.
The board is your standard modern taiwanese specimen. Dull, ground/trace-filled, autorouted touch, which doesn’t raise much feelings. The (a)symmetry is more pleasing than most of the modern designs, but still quite boring.
Didn’t expect to see SIP opamps so this was one quite interesting things about this pedal. But now that i’ve been inside of various Boss boxes, the surprise isn’t that big. Other thing that in reality is interesting is definitely the board fastening. All the sliders have their own board, which is fastened to the main board and the enclosure with a single screw. With these few peculiarities boosting the otherwise low interest, this is not a bad tool to have.
How does it sound?
Loudish. Can be used as a clean boost in addition to frequency tweaking. Versatile 7 band eq. Doesn’t sound like “Wohoo”, but rather like “Yey.” One can definitely use this to pre- or post-eq other pedals in addition to boosting one’s cleans. And distortions.